Long queues of people awaiting access into public restrooms for women are common sights at fair grounds, sporting events, cultural programs, and other events that attract large crowds of people. Such queues normally do not form at the site of men's rooms. Since healthy individuals of both sexes urinate in about the same length of time, the queues at the women's rooms are primarily attributable to the absence from women's rooms of plumbing fixtures of the type commonly referred to as "urinals" such as are found in men's rooms.
Urinals of the type found in public men's rooms are not installed in women's rooms because they are not adapted for the female anatomy. Accordingly, several inventors have developed urinals adapted specifically for use by women. The most highly developed urinal for use by females known heretofore is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,598, awarded to the present inventor in 1987. That patent contains a discussion of earlier attempts in the field, and the invention historian is referred thereto for a thorough description of said earlier efforts.
The urinal shown in the present inventor's earlier patent pioneered this important field and its claims are entitled to broad interpretation so as to protect the heart of the invention, as a matter of law.
However, the earlier device included no specific means for automatically ejecting its funnel-lining means from its funnel after use.
The earlier device also did not have the look of a standard restroom plumbing fixture. Moreover, the earlier unit was not specifically disclosed as being installed in a public restroom in the absence of a need to provide special plumbing.
Accordingly, a need remains extant for an improved urinal for women that does not require the user to touch the funnel-lining means after use and which may be installed in any public restroom without modification to the existing plumbing connections.
The prior art, taken as a whole, neither teaches nor suggests how such an improved fixture could be provided.